Modeling and Validating the Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Preservice Teachers of English as a Foreign Language

• In Event: Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Foreign Language Teachers: Conceptualizations and Empirical Findings Across Different Domains

Abstract

Objectives & framework
We investigate the PCK of pre-service teachers of English as a foreign language, a domain hardly been accounted for by empirical educational research. Using a novel paper-pencil test measuring that knowledge, three research questions are posed: (1) Regarding the modelling of PCK, how can it be conceptualized and empirically measured? (2) Regarding construct validity, how is PCK related to content knowledge (CK), general pedagogical knowledge (GPK), and language proficiency (LP)? (3) Regarding curricular validity of the PCK test, do pre-service teachers at an advanced stage of their training (i.e., teacher candidates during induction) outperform pre-service teachers (i.e., student teachers at university) due to their extended opportunities to learn?

Methods & data
Two groups of pre-service teachers with different level of expertise (Berliner, 2004) who went through the initial teacher education in Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany, were sampled in summer 2015: About 250 student teachers in their fourth year of training at university (“novices” with hardly any practical teaching experience) and about 250 teacher candidates in their last year of training before they get fully certified (“advanced beginners” with a good amount of teaching experience). Both samples are representative for their regional population. We measured PCK, CK, GPK via paper-pencil tests, LP via the Cambridge English Placement Test. Several scales measuring opportunities to learn that had to be rated by the pre-service teachers were applied, informing about topics they had already studied and practical learning experience gained during initial teacher education.

Expected results
Since data collection ends in August 2015, we are only able to summarize expected results, although our assumptions have already been explored in previous studies which served to develop the CK test (Blömeke et al., 2011) and GPK test (König et al., 2011) as well as in a pilot study which served to develop the PCK test. Our PCK test comprises knowledge of curriculum, knowledge of teaching strategies/representations, and knowledge of students. We assume a scaling analysis of the test will provide evidence of corresponding reliable subscales measuring these three knowledge dimensions. Following Shulman’s consideration towards PCK as “that special amalgam of content and pedagogy” (1987, p. 8), we assume correlations between PCK overall test score and CK as well as GPK test scores respectively to be higher than the correlation between CK and GPK, even when controlled for LP. We assume higher PCK test scores of teacher candidates enrolled in induction that can be explained with a larger amount of opportunities to learn PCK they already had when compared with the student teachers at university.

Significance
Empirical findings will provide important insight into the content-related structure of PCK and thus contribute to the discourse on how PCK could be conceptualized. Correlational analysis of PCK with other cognitive measures (CK, GPK) will provide evidence for the validity of the PCK construct. Differences among student teachers and teacher candidates will give insight into how PCK might develop during initial teacher education (curricular validity). Implications for teacher knowledge and the effectiveness of teacher education will be discussed.

Authors

• Johannes Koenig, University of Cologne

• Sandra Lammerding, University of Cologne

• Guenter Nold, University of Dortmund

• Andreas Rohde, University of Cologne

• Sarah Strauss, University of Cologne

• Sarantis Tachtsoglou, University of Cologne